GABRIELA LOPEZ Saturday, June 27, 2015 Q. What accounted for ...

Download PDF
0 downloads 72 Views 54KB Size Report
Comment
Jun 27, 2015 - Q. When did you meet Lorena first? GABRIELA LOPEZ: I met her first when I was probably 11, 12 years old a
ROUND 2 INTERVIEW: GABRIELA LOPEZ Saturday, June 27, 2015

Q. What accounted for such a big difference just from yesterday? GABRIELA LOPEZ: I think it was just a mindset. You know, yesterday I was a little nervous and today I did some meditation in the morning and I told myself that I was good enough to play against these girls, to play my best, and that's what I did. I focus one shot at a time and felt really calm in the course. Q. What kind of meditation are you talking about? GABRIELA LOPEZ: Well, you know, just visualizing myself here on the course. It's not something really specific, it's just being in tune with myself and having some peace, internal peace. That was a key for today. Q. Third best round of the day on the professional tour. How do you feel about that? GABRIELA LOPEZ: Really, really good. You know, it was a great experience, just playing with Cheyenne Woods and Kelly Shon. We played together in college and amateur players and I feel really, really comfortable in the arena. And knowing the course beforehand helped a lot today and I stayed patient and had some really close opportunities for birdie and hit 17 greens, what made me really successful today. But overall I think it was really solid in every aspect. Q. How does that rank competitively for a round? GABRIELA LOPEZ: That's I tie my record. I had it on No. 8 and I thought about it, so mind gets in the way when it gets close and tight. But it was solid. I'm proud of myself and making the cut was not the goal. I still personally met that goal. Q. You said that yesterday and you believed it because you came out and did it today. How much did that mindset coming in really help? GABRIELA LOPEZ: It helped me a lot knowing that I'm capable of doing what I said to myself makes a huge difference for me mentally and emotionally. It just proving myself that I'm good enough. Q. Would you like to make the cut? GABRIELA LOPEZ: Another opportunity for tomorrow and I don't know, it's an honor to represent the Razorbacks here and Mexico at the same time and just climbing that leaderboard.

1

TeeScripts.com

Q. 17, the way you hit the tee shot in there, three and a half or whatever it was to the pin, what was 17 like today? GABRIELA LOPEZ: It was amazing. You know, just changing the shirt and just wearing the woo pig sooey shirt meant a lot to me and I think to the public, too, to the people that were supporting me. I think that was the most nervous putt I had all round, even though it was like five feet, but it felt really good. Q. Did you do that yesterday with the shirt or was that something -GABRIELA LOPEZ: No, it was something we thought about. My coach handed it to me and he was like, well, you should wear it. We're like, yeah, we should wear it. Just throwing golf balls and hats to the people meant a lot. Q. How did you get started playing golf? GABRIELA LOPEZ: I started playing when I was 5. My dad introduced me to this game. I always combined golf with another sport, which was tennis or gymnastics. It was just a fun game at the beginning, just rode in the cart with him. Q. How much did you follow Lorena growing up? GABRIELA LOPEZ: A lot. She was an inspiration for me, for sure. Just like I talked about Stacy in the press conference, she was the one that taught me that the impossible can be possible and both of them have been my role model for my career and just motivated me a lot to keep working hard to do what I really wanted. Q. When did you meet Lorena first? GABRIELA LOPEZ: I met her first when I was probably 11, 12 years old and I had an opportunity to play with her when I was 13. You know, it meant a lot to me having her support for all the women and Mexican girls. Q. I know this is getting a ton of attention around here but how much attention are you getting in Mexico as kind of the future of Mexican women's golf after Lorena? GABRIELA LOPEZ: You know, they have high expectations about me playing a lot of LPGA tournaments as an amateur and just improving more and more and being one of the best college players from Mexico, it means a lot. But it's also a responsibility for me to just, you know, having that name and representing that name as high as possible, it means a lot to me. Q. Think about the Olympics at all? GABRIELA LOPEZ: Well, yes, I've thought about it, but the rankings, I don't think they're 2

TeeScripts.com

going to be able to help me a lot just because the world rankings and they take, I think, six of the best Latin American girls. Q. Right. GABRIELA LOPEZ: So it's against me, but I'm going to keep working hard. If it comes my way, I'll for sure play it. Q. Do you think you'll talk to Stacy before tomorrow? GABRIELA LOPEZ: Yes. I mean, I hope, you know. She's a great person and I don't know, I'm just trying to keep track of whatever she's doing and all these girls, keep pushing myself hard. Q. What's she like as a coach, as a volunteer assistant? GABRIELA LOPEZ: She's great. She's not very emotionally related to us but she does a great job with showing us shapes and short game stuff and course management that helps a lot, and it's just a matter of having her close to the team and that means a lot to the program not only for me. Q. How much did that factor into your decision to go to Arkansas? GABRIELA LOPEZ: A lot. She was getting really, really famous in that moment and I didn't know her at the beginning, and after I knew her, I mean, I thought that I was going to be one of them. Q. All right. Last question, do you think Lorena will ever play an LPGA event again? She's talked about maybe. GABRIELA LOPEZ: I think she might, but you know it's more like an exhibition for the Mexican people. I don't think that it's a competitive approach, but she loves the game, she really loves. I mean, I think it's a great opportunity for her also to show all the support for the LPGA because I think she helped a lot with the volunteers and a lot of greenskeepers that were Mexican people working for the course and she had a great time with them and she showed that she was really humble. Q. How much did that mean to you to play in her event? GABRIELA LOPEZ: It meant a lot. It's one of my dreams just to go again. I mean, it's played at my home course so that means even more to me and being able to probably -- being able to have the opportunity to win this year, probably it's bigger than my dream.

3

TeeScripts.com